Glad to have yet another Texan here, that state seems to be getting saner every day. I be from Toronto GTA myself, eh.

.............to the machine , or if you prefer the Lab , or the RRS Forums .  Austin the birthplace of Steve Ray Vaughn , second to only Jimi Hendrix . And Alaska WoW , what did you learn ? outdoors sport's like fishing , hiking , white water rafting ?     

Hey what's goin on.....I don't know about Texas, but I recent got back from a trip to Seward, Alaska to visit some family and loved it. Anyway, welcome to the forums

Welcome to the forums!

The only question I have is : your realization of atheism 4 years ago....what was the one thing that helped you break out of your (what I assume is HARDCORE) indoctrination!  Great escape!

Hello again ,I was just watching the Daily Show ,and the guest taped a show in Alaska called "Tougher in Alaska " about how hard it is to get around.       

Welcome!

You further solidify my theory that fundamentalist indoctrination only leads to atheists..maybe they will indoctrinate themsleves out of existence soon. I'm also curious as to how your father took it?

      ... pull up a chair, sit on the floor... admissions free, pay at the door.   I still think Tom Hicks first said this line but I can't find it on the web.  Anyone help?    

                Good to have you.  What's the drinking age in Texas?

Hi, there.  Have fun.

Because I remember how heavily I was into being a Christian and how much it meant to me. Only when someone is ready to come to reality will I help them. Otherwise I'd be starting a lot of drama.

He says that if I'm not a Christian now then I never was and is thoroughly convinced that I'm going to Hell. I can't talk to him anymore without him trying to "save" me and nor will he give me the time of day to explain why I'm an atheist.

The moment I told him I was an atheist was horrible. Ever seen a preacher pin his son to the wall by his neck and cuss him for 30 minutes?

I was at the time the leader of church camp, leader of Sunday school, as well as the youth preacher. I was always looking for new things to help me be a more focused christian. It really is a story worthy of a book but I'll just say it started when I realized how many translations and modifications the bible had gone through and how off center it must have been from the original version, from there i spoke with my science teacher and the entire process went of for a few months.

Nice sentiment, but if you really dig into why people 'believe' you'll find that they don't really believe at all. At best is't self-delusion and they are so full of hypocrisy when they cherry pick and decide that only part of the holy book is true. You'll find 'belief' is often based on fear. With the way your father acted, I'd say he may be a closet atheist. But he's in so far with his career and life so wrapped up in religion, that he can't get out.

So, I can't have any respect for someones belief in something for which there is no evidence and something which they terrorized and lie to children about.

Why do you want to get on the nice side of people who terrorize the young and naive and would be happy to see you tortured in hell? Seems like you'd want to just avoid these people, tolerate them if they're your family.

I wish; the truth here is, just admitting a slightly different world view requires courage and more powerful guns than the resident cretins have, but then again, I'm in North Texas, not the far more reasonable bastion of Austin.

I like the way you think, but why go around hating the mass when many of them don't try to force anything upon you? There are many who are like my father and how I was, I admit that. But even so, only when bigotry is attacking me will I strike back and be forceful with my beliefs. I want to be nothing like my father, I want to be better. I have friends who are christians and jews who respect my standing so I respect theirs. When they ask me why I tell them.

I need you to type the following into Google for me: "flying armbar".

Also, from my old instructor Vladimir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH5KJxgSk-Q

 Yikes !   Seriously, I'm a huge fan of Russian fighters but I'm a little dubious about the effectiveness of Vlad's slippy-slappy form of combat

ps, welcome to the forum Jake.

Hi and welcome.  

While it would be counter productive, not to mention impolite, to go for the throat of a supernaturalist in a social situation, I don’t think it is good to pretend a respect you do not feel.  All forms of superstition, religion in particular, have been historically detrimental to civilization in my view and do not deserve respect.  After all, your recent enlightenment would not have been respected throughout most of Christian history…quite the reverse.  

   Just curious, but did Vasiliy say that he knew and or trained with Fedor ?  I don't recall reading about Vasily or Systema in any interviews with Fedor

I did a Google search and Vasily seems to endorse the use of "Psychic Training" or sixth sense.  Seems kind of weird to me, though.  What was your impression of that ?

  I'm still checking the guy out and am reading a thread about Systema on Bullshido.net.

Whoa - no, I didn't say that. Systema is mixed with a bunch of old Russian styles of martial art (which is where Systema borrows much of its striking technique). As a convenient example, we studied the strike that Fedor just used to knock Tim Silvia out. The sweeping overhand that Fedor, in his genius, has turned into a hybrid of a straight punch and a backhand roundhouse. I've seen him use it brilliantly several times on larger opponents (like Zuluzinho as the most textbook example). He can plant it straight on the jaw, which is amazing.

Ugh. Yes, unfortunately these guys propagate the myth that there's some kind of psychic energy you can use on other people. Somehow it only seems to work on some students (for instance, it never worked on me or anyone else who had played a contact sport before). That part really bothered me because it's my feeling that Vladimir considered it a kind of joke, but the demand for it kept him going, and he made a video about it. That was such a small part of the training that I just ignored it. But yeah, that part is pure bullshido.

Vladimir and a few of his students are decent, but don't watch any of the guys from Systema UK - they're terrible. I don't even know where they learned that shit. Ryabko is very efficient, but his stuff basically works for his body type (stocky and powerful). Most of the stuff you see on YouTube is what Vladimir called "Easy" training (demo stuff). The actual practice was a lot more brutal, and a lot less like aikido.

Cool.  Thanks for the view from the inside, so to speak.   I'm glad I'm not the only one here who enjoys combat oriented sports.  

...I guess I should stop being rude to Jake and derailing his intro thread.  Sorry Jake !

That's what I hold to, I respect a person CHOICE to, not the belief itself and I attack when they do or when they get that holier than thou syndrome. My friends are cool with me so I'm cool with them, the majority of a faith are quite a different story.